Love and Lies, Why are you like this?

Recently, I made a vow to myself to finish any new anime I try that passes my three episode test. Usually, I can walk away from a series that I was on the fence about initially with “Man, that was actually pretty good.” Not Love and Lies. I was already feeling unsure about this anime with my first impressions article but holy shit this series just does nothing for me. Let’s dive right in.

Since I’ve already provided my first impressions of this show here, I’m not going to provide a synopsis. Feel free to give that a read if you haven’t.

Spoilers Ahead. You’ve been warned.

In my first impressions, I talked about the concept and plot that drives this series. I thought it was an interesting spin on slice of life… initially. It was an empty premise. The show is built around the idea that if you’re matched up, you have to be together. No real danger was presented but they always imply it. Imagine, Rage of Bahamut continuously mentioned the threat of Bahamut destroying the world and it turned out to be a kitten. That’s what this show is. They act as though there is this big conspiracy around the notices that arrange these marriages but then end the show with “we can break up and then you can go love her instead.” WHAT?

I know that the source material is still going and it may have been handled much better there but this is unacceptable in this season. I almost feel that it’s unfair that this anime broadcasted the same season Tsuredure Children and Gamers! did. Gamers! wasn’t perfect but it handled all the elements of slice of life better as a secondary genre. Tsuredure Children as an anime short provides a much more interesting perspective of adolescent youth falling in love. It’s unfair not just because it’s a better show but because there are multiple relationships developing at once.

Love triangles can be interesting when handled right. I’m sorry but Misaki is terrible. She does nothing to make herself likable to the audience and for some odd reason, Yukari keeps falling for her over a damn eraser and oh wait…

To be honest a better love triangle would’ve just been Yukari, Ririna, and Nisaka. It was unfortunate that it was merely hinted at. He probably makes a move down the road in the source material but anything would be better than Misaki. It’s also a damn shame that we didn’t get more screentime for characters that really mattered but that’s beside the point.

Aesthetically, my opinion hasn’t changed. The animation could be much better and their feeble attempts at making funny facial expressions completely lose any momentum the episode had for me.  It’s sad. I feel that there just wasn’t enough attention to detail. LIDEN FILMS has been able to adapt manga to anime well. An example I always like to use is Yamada and the seven witches since it was a GREAT adaption. Unfortunately, I believe this anime was a victim of trying to mimic the art styles of the manga instead of developing it to fit their animation style.

Tounge kissing in anime is just hard to watch. Most of the time it is used rarely so it is more of a hint that it’s happening instead of being fully displayed to the audience. Why couldn’t you do this Love and Lies? Scum’s Wish was fine. I could deal with that but this one scene with Yukari and Ririna was just so hard to watch and it just felt cringey. Being optimistic, I could say that it was done this way because Ririna was “practicing” but they were perfectly fine kissing a few episodes previous to it.

Overall, I’d probably give Love and Lies a 5. It was extremely Average. I could be nice and give it a 6 for the side characters and Ririna alone but the conclusion of the series was open-ended with no intent to be continued. So many unanswered questions but they made it so unenjoyable that I couldn’t be bothered to care. What did you think of Love and Lies? Let me know in the comments below. Also, hit that like button if you enjoyed this review!